January 16, 2011 11:28 PM UTC

Freshman "Tea Party" Rep. Grinds JBC to a Halt

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• by: Colorado Pols

Reporter Marianne Goodland, who we normally refer to when she writes for the Colorado Statesman, has a very interesting story this weekend in the Sterling Journal Advocate–unfortunately, a MediaNews property that we can’t quote directly.

But the story, about proceedings in the Joint Budget Committee last week as they begin the daunting process of closing the $1 billion-plus hole in the state’s general fund budget for the coming fiscal year, should be a warning to everybody who wants the “bipartisanship” that everybody’s been insisting is in style this year to be, well, reality. And that reality is up to people like newly-minted Congressman Cory Gardner’s replacement, Rep. Jon Becker.

Last week, as Goodland reports, the JBC looked at a staff-recommended proposal to end a state subsidy of certain inspections carried out by the Agriculture Department; which would result in an increase in the cattle inspection fee by seven cents per head, from 55 to 62 cents, along with a couple of other incremental fee increases. Goodland explains the extent to which the Agriculture Department has already been cut in the last few years, and how in each case those cuts have been offset by higher fees charged to producer recipients of Ag Department services. As everybody knows, fees are not taxes according to the Colorado Supreme Court, and the letter of TABOR is allowed to sleep undisturbed while the budget gets necessarily balanced.

Don’t trouble Jon Becker with any of this.

Becker, as Goodland explains, categorically opposed any fee increases to pay for the mandated services provided by the Agriculture Department, even as that department faces continuing budget cuts, such as the necessary loss of this subsidy of cattle brand inspections, that cannot be offset any other way. Presuming the accuracy of Goodland’s report, and we certainly do, this got bad enough that none other than Sen. Kent Lambert, who has already earned a reputation on the JBC for ideological flights of fancy that amount to a waste of time for everyone involved, was unsuccessfully trying to make Becker see reason before the end.

Because, you see, JBC-sponsored bills must pass unanimously. This is why–much like we said about Lambert, though we see now that it gets even worse–you put grownups in charge of the budget. And this is just the beginning of a months-long process affecting every area of state government, meaning Rep. Becker is going to have lots of opportunities to pontificate. The next few months may showcase the consequences in a way that not even Kent Lambert’s appointment to the JBC, instead of the reasonable Al White, could have portended.